How PRH.com Drives Discovery and Book Sales

by Neda Dallal|September, 2018

PenguinRandomHouse.com is a prime destination for readers and consumers alike. In this article, we detail the rising performance of PRH.com, some special features the site offers, and how we use the site to increase visibility of our authors’ titles.

Design & performance

Readers who visit the PRH.com homepage are immediately immersed in a colorful world of book covers, attention-grabbing blurbs, and easy ways to discover their next book. We make it easy for them to find the newest and hottest releases with the click of a button. In addition, any consumer who has a PRH.com account will see a personalized home page based on their preferences.

In 2018, PRH.com has been reaching an average of 5.5 million page views per month, with 2.9 million average monthly unique visitors. (For context, this makes us the most highly visited publishing house website among our major competitors.) With such high traffic, the website is a hub for book discovery and a strong driver of book sales. We also rank highly in page views compared to many of the most popular booksellers, book-specific discovery sites, and media websites.

Part of our success can be attributed to the clean design and easy user experience, which are regularly optimized to meet consumers’ needs. Users are able to easily find and purchase books from a variety of retailers in their preferred format, as well as read sample excerpts, discover additional book and author details, and more.

Personalized content for every reader

Our site employs data collection tools that understand user preferences, which in turn allows us to provide personalized suggestions for other products. With these tailored recommendations, the site sees higher conversion rates and, in turn, more repeat visitors.

Users have the option to create an account on the site, after which they are asked to pick their favorite book genres. When users return to the site, they will get updated daily recommendations based on these preferences.

Attracting readers with email recommendations

In addition to on-site recommendations, PRH.com also deploys e-newsletters that are chock full of book recs. These emails go out frequently, and come in many formats, from further recommendations for a specific genre to the best books to give your mom on Mother’s Day to the best books to read or gift for special occasions like graduation.

Further, the site offers readers the option to get news and updates specifically about you and your books. These author updates keep dedicated readers informed about any books you may have in the works.

Providing multiple targeted opportunities for a reader to find your book greatly increases visibility for our titles, and has the potential to increase an author’s readership significantly. We also make a point to promote backlist titles as much as possible, so the buzz for your books will stay strong long after their initial publication dates.

Our quizzes also personalize books and genres for readers, and they are a great way to highlight what’s most fun about the reading experience. Some popular quizzes include “Which Romance Book Are You?” and “What Is Your Literary Flaw?” Encouraging the love and fun of reading entices users to keep returning to the site, and gives us the chance to make sure your book gets into as many hands as possible.

PRH.com is one of the best ways for us to reach readers, and in turn to promote your books. With all the features the website offers, we are constantly working to make your book someone’s next great read.

Neda Dallal is Associate, Publishing Development and Author Platforms for Penguin Random House.